The Washington Post had an article on June 30, 2013 titled “They said the sequester would be scary. Mostly, they were wrong.” It said the effects were largely mitigated by political means and methods after all.
I just want to say that for us at ATI, the predictions of large cutbacks are mostly correct. It has had a tremendously adverse effect with attendance at public courses down more than 40 % People either do not have money for travel and/ or they do not have money for training. Both training and travel are the first to be cut in a tight budget. The story that best illustrates this came to me from a gentleman who, along with his colleague, had registered –and paid- to attend one of our courses last winter. In the eleventh hour they had to withdraw as travel funding was no longer permitted.
I contacted him when the course was next being held to find out if they might be able to attend this time and the answer was “no”. He elaborated, “They’ve even stopped cutting the grass (knee high is some places) and our restrooms only get cleaned twice a week. Sequestration is hurting us badly.”
To this I responded, “Holy cow! Knee high grass.”
He came back with, “We could use a few cows.”
Please feel free to share your Sequestration story.